


Falling Game

by Kettricken



Category: Books of the Raksura - Martha Wells
Genre: Domestic, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Head Injury, M/M, Sleep Deprivation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-19
Updated: 2016-05-19
Packaged: 2018-06-09 09:30:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6900484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kettricken/pseuds/Kettricken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Moon falls out of bed. (But Aeriat don't fall out of bed!) The others try to take care of him - but it turns out Moon is a very difficult patient.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling Game

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies for any typos in this un-Beta'd work. Notes / fixes welcome!
> 
> You can read about Moon and thunder-phobia in a missing scene from The Cloud Roads that is available on Martha Wells' site.

Moon came awake in a rush, uncertain of what had caused him to do so. 

Jade had curled away from him in her sleep, pulling most of the soft bedding with her. A side effect of her pregnancy, along with extreme bouts of irritability, was fidgety, light slumber. Moon had gotten used to waking up on the raw vines of the hanging bed, though, and it didn’t usually wake him. Maybe Jade had kicked him?

Then he heard the distant rumbling of thunder outside the mountain-tree, and Moon knew why he was awake.

When he was a fledgling, Moon had had to weather dangerous lightning storms alone, and exposed, in the forest where he had been abandoned. It was a little embarrassing to still be agitated by thunder, especially here in the safety of Jade’s bower, but there it was. It usually helped to walk around while the storm passed overhead. Besides, he was likely to wake Jade if he stayed in the bed with her.

Moon inched cautiously around Jade’s warm body, suppressing the shiver that ran through him at the next rolling boom. The storm was getting closer. Jade turned, making small noises as she tangled herself even deeper into the nest of furs, but did not wake. Moon waited until she had settled again, then reached his foot out to catch the toe-hold in the wall beside the hanging bed.

The clap of thunder that followed was much louder than it had any right to be. It ran up his spine like a physical slap. His front leg clenched, slipping from the hold, and all at once he was head over heels, pivoting toward the ground. Even as he shifted to his winged Aeriat form, he knew he didn’t have enough time. One moment the metal rim of the hearth was rushing up at him, and the next he was flipped onto his back, wings wide and flat across the ground, and Jade was bending over him, saying his name. He couldn’t remember her coming down from the bed.

He tried to sit up, feeling a little sheepish, but then his skull seemed to swell up and burst inside of him, and he found himself back on the floor. 

“Lie back – I think you hit your head pretty hard. There’s a lot of blood on the hearth. What happened?”

Moon’s head was still pounding, worse with every heartbeat. “Climbing out of bed,” he managed. “Foot slipped.”

Jade hissed, but the hand she laid against his beating chest was warm. “I don’t understand,” she said. “It’s only a little way down. Why didn’t you just jump?”

“If I jumped and woke you, you’d be asking me why I didn’t just climb.”

“Moon – ”

Whatever Jade had been about to say, though, she didn’t get the chance, because Balm chose that moment to burst into the bower. She was breathless, and still in her Aeriat form. 

“Lightning just struck an upper platform, but no-one’s hurt – did you hear it?” Balm quirked her head. “What’s going on in here?”

“Balm, go get Heart,” said Jade.

Balm flattened her spines, then wheeled and ran out of the bower.

It was getting harder to think. The best he could do was that maybe if he closed his eyes, everything would go away. But when he did, there was a dull pressure in his chest, and he opened them again. Jade was running her hands softly over his brows.

“I can’t let you shift, Moon. The mentors need to see how bad the damage is first.” 

Unlike Pearl, Jade almost never used the Raksuran queens’ power of control, and she looked a little uneasy about it now. He knew she was right, so part of him wanted to tell her it was all right, but most of him just wanted to pass out, and the fact that she wouldn’t let him made him want to cry like an angry fledgling. He settled on not saying anything.

It wasn’t long before Balm rushed back into the chamber, carrying Heart for the sake of speed. Then Merit, and then Chime, Blossom, Bell, Rill, and before the room could completely fill with murmuring worried Arbora, Jade snapped, “That’s enough. The mentors can stay. Balm, go to the door and keep the rest out.”

Heart had already rushed over to press her hand to his forehead. As the pain dimmed, as usual, he wanted to go to sleep even more, but Merit whispered to Heart, and then Heart said, “Jade, lift his head, gently. Moon, I need you to drink this.”

Chime, who seemed to have decided that “mentors” included him, was crouched beside him, wide-eyed. Now that his head felt a more normal size, Moon was beginning to feel self-conscious again. He wished he could go crawl into the roots of the tree and forget about the entire incident.

“I kept him from shifting.”

“You did right,” Heart affirmed, lifting the simple to Moon’s lips. “There’s far too much blood there for the cuts and bruises I can see right now, or the way he’s acting. He hit his head still in groundling form, right? I think he must have fractured his skull. This simple will let him keep his Aeriat form while he sleeps. I don’t want him changing back for at least two more days.”

Moon swallowed, then closed his eyes. Next to vanishing into the tree, sleep sounded like the best solution to acute embarassment. 

“Jade, what in the world happened?” whispered Chime.

Jade’s voice, in response, was flat. “He says he fell out of bed.”

“What? Aeriat don’t fall out of bed.” 

“I didn’t push the issue,” said Jade. Her irritability seemed to have returned full force. “Is he resting safe now, Heart? Can I go back to sleep?”

“What are we going to tell the court?” said Merit. “We can’t tell them he just fell out of bed. That’s too weird, even for Moon.”

Balm’s voice came in from outside the bower. “A little late to worry about that. Everyone can hear you out here.”

Jade hissed.

Then Heart said, close by his ear, “Moon, you’re still awake, aren’t you?”

There wasn’t much point in pretending, so he opened his eyes. The pain had receded to a dull ache, like hands pushing on his skull. He still felt tired, but it didn’t seem to want to translate to sleep.

Heart peered at his eyes, then sighed in exasperation.

Chime smiled ruefully. “Could have guessed he’d be one of those.”

“One of what?” Jade flicked her tail.

“Some Raksura just can’t sleep when they’re kept from changing back to groundling,” Heart explained. “When that’s the case, the simple I gave Moon will keep them from sleeping at all.”

Jade sat back on her haunches. She looked like she was on the edge of exploding.

“That’s no good. Wouldn’t a healing sleep be better?”

Heart shook her head. “No, this is better. He was lucky to be able to shift out of groundling at all after that kind of an injury; if he can stand being awake for two days, it will be like the severest damage never occurred.” 

“I’m fine,” said Moon, through carefully un-gritted teeth. “Go back to sleep.”

“He’s right,” Heart interposed quickly before Jade could reply. “Your clutch needs you rested, Jade. Chime and I can keep an eye on Moon.”

Jade thought for a moment. “You said ‘some’ Raksura wound up unable to sleep.”

“Yes.” 

“What kind of Raksura, in particular?”

Heart swallowed. 

“Heart?”

“In particular,” Heart hedged, “well. Particularly high-strung Raksura.”

Jade looked at Moon. He crossed his arms at her until she shook her head and climbed back into the bed.

Heart said, “Moon, maybe you’d like a book to read?” 

He turned in her direction, and she immediately reddened.

“Or maybe I’ll just leave you and Chime.”

Chime gave him a falsely cheerful attempt at a smile.

Moon seemed to be having some trouble getting rid of his stormy expression, so he turned his face toward the ceiling. In the quiet bower, he could hear the last rolls of thunder fading out into the night.

#

By the next morning, Moon was thoroughly exhausted, but no more able to sleep for it. He was also completely sick of Chime, who had spent most of the night chattering Arbora gossip at him in an attempt to cheer him up.

Jade rose late, talked quietly with Chime and touched the side of Moon’s face with a look of such uncomprehending pity that he practically snapped her finger off. She huffed out of the bower, promising to bring back food.

“I’ll come with you,” said Moon, rising to his feet. He wobbled a little and had to extend his wings for balance. Chime put a hand on his arm.

“Not yet. Heart or Merit should check your injury first.”

“Then get one of them,” he snarled – then immediately felt bad about it and added, “If I don’t get out of this room, I’m going to kill someone.”

“Just wait here, all right?” said Chime, lifting his hand and putting it reflexively under his other arm. “I’ll be back with Heart before Jade even comes. Sit down, Moon.”

He nipped the top of Moon’s head, shyly, and ran out.

As soon as the room stopped wobbling around him, Moon slunk out. With Indigo Cloud still underpopulated, the queens’ level was usually even more empty than the consorts’. Moon’s luck held; no-one was around, and he made his way quietly toward one of the stairways that led to the upper boughs.

If he could just avoid everyone until he stopped feeling like he was going to snap and lash out, he had a feeling he would be all right. Everything went as planned until he emerged on one of the upper platforms, and remembered too late what Balm had said when she’d burst into Jade’s bower. The next platform over, which they had recently planted with fruit trees, was the one that had been splintered and blackened by the lightning. Half the warriors in the court were buzzing around salvaging saplings, directed by a whole troop of Arbora.

Almost immediately, there was a rush of wings near his head.

“Oh, Moon – ” shouted Root, alighting beside him. 

Moon winced. The long climb was already making his pulse pound in his temples again, and Root's shouting didn't help.

“ – they said you were hurt. Was it just a rumor? Anyway, come look – a shard from the explosion got shot like a javelin into the next platform. If someone had been there, it would have killed them for sure – it’s nearly a wingspan long! You’ll have to hurry, they’re pulling it out now.”

This knowledge didn't make Moon feel any better either. In fact, he was starting to feel markedly worse. He sat down, resting his head in his hand. Climbing so many stairs had been a bad idea.

“Wait, you are hurt?” Root frowned, anxious. “Does Jade know you’re up here? Should I get somebody?”

“No,” Moon grated out. “I’m going back down in a minute.”

“But what happened?”

“He tripped and fell out of the bed,” said a new voice. Moon looked up, and his stomach sank. 

“Evidently it’s not enough for him to get injured on every single expedition he insists on going on,” River continued, touching down a little further along the platform. “He decided to prove that staying at home was just as dangerous.”

Root flicked his spines. “Don’t be ridiculous. Aeriat don’t fall out of the bed.”

Moon attempted to shrink his head down into his shoulders. Maybe some vines could reach up from the platform and swallow him?

“Don’t worry, Moon,” said River. “If you’ll just let the warriors set a proper guard for you, we'll keep you nice and safe. Even in your queen’s bower.” 

Moon rose, spines rising. He had no intention of fighting River with a head injury - though Root had no reason to know that, and had quickly stepped to the side - but he also couldn’t let the insult stand. He took one step forward, intending to just loom over River.

And that was when the sky and the platform switched places. His wing struck the edge of the platform – he was sideways? Root shouted, and the world began to spin. River’s hands were grabbing at his neck and shoulders, and he beat his wings, twisting frantically in an attempt to right himself; and then he heard Chime say, “Moon, stop fighting us, stop fighting.” 

Moon froze, forcing himself to pull his wings in – it went against every instinct he had, like taking a breath under water – and then realized that River, Root and Chime were lifting him back up onto the platform. They laid him on his back, but he still felt like he was falling, and dots of light filtering through the leaves of the canopy spun and spun.

“He went for me, and then he just went right off the platform,” River said, sounding a little cowed. “I didn’t know he was that badly hurt.”

“It’s vertigo,” said Chime. “Moon, let’s get you back downstairs.”

There was another rush-thump as a fifth Aeriat landed on the platform, and suddenly everyone went very still.

“River,” said Pearl. “Moon. Explain.”

#

“If he can’t be trusted to obey the mentors,” said Pearl, “chain him in his bower until he can be.”

They were in the private sitting room of the consorts’ level. Pearl, to his great chagrin, had carried him there instead of letting him walk, and as soon as she set him down, had begun pacing the room, and hadn’t stopped even when Jade rushed in with Heart. Jade was bristling.

“I don’t think you need to… chain anybody,” said Ember, Pearl’s young consort. “Not listening to a mentor is one thing, but you’re his reigning queen. Since you’ve told him, I’m sure Moon will obey.”

Pearl huffed. It might have been laughter. “The only one Moon actually listens to is Stone, and who knows where Stone keeps himself these days?”

“He’ll listen to me,” said Jade.

“See that he does, then,” snapped Pearl. “He hasn’t shown any inclinations in that direction so far.”

Ember, still in his lean groundling form, stepped forward, neatly intercepting Pearl’s path. “Pearl, would you come eat with me? It’s been a difficult morning. Jade has Moon now.”

Someday, Moon thought, he would like to know just how Ember managed to keep such a conciliatory tone without letting drop even a hint of condescension. It certainly worked wonders on Pearl. With a last flick of her spines, she exited the chamber, and Ember fell in gracefully behind her, shooting Moon a worried glance.

Jade wheeled on him the moment they were gone. “You couldn’t stay put for two moments? You had to go and get the whole court involved in this? And now, if you can’t prove you can listen to me…”

“I’m not interested in being a game-piece between the two of you.”

Jade’s eyes opened wide. “You think that’s all this is? Moon, it’s one thing to fall out of a bed – but you just tried to fall off a mountain-tree. If you can’t prove you can listen to me and stay put, I’m strongly considering taking Pearl’s suggestion myself, for your own safety – you clearly rattled you head worse than I thought.”

Moon rose, bracing himself with one hand against the dizziness. His heart was racing. Jade didn’t mean it, couldn’t mean it, but he’d been chained up before, and the response to the threat was instinctive. 

Then Jade, still in her full Aeriat form, made it worse. She pulled herself higher, looming over him. “I don’t want to fight you, but if I have to, believe me, I can.”

“It will be the last time you do,” snarled Moon.

“Jade,” said Heart, “get out, right now. You’re agitating my patient.”

Jade turned, furious – and then, at the sight of the tiny figure standing before her, abruptly flattened her spines. Without another word, she shifted to her groundling form and fled.

Moon was shaking with more than just exhaustion. He barely heard Heart asking him for permission to examine the wound again. Her hand trembled a little, too. He swallowed the simple mechanically, wincing at the bitter taste. Then he sat down. Heart said something else, and then went quiet. When Moon looked up again, some measure of time had passed, and no-one was left in the room but Chime.

“Moon…” Chime started, then tried again. “Jade shouldn’t have said that. But please – would you think of Heart? She won’t say it to you, but she’s really upset. She thinks it’s her fault the simple isn’t working right; that if Flower were the one making it, you’d be safely asleep right now instead of going off platforms. All last night, after she left us, she told me she’s been getting ingredients ready for a new batch. Just for you. All you had to do was listen to us and stay still.”

The words made sense, but Moon wasn’t ready to hear them, or to deal with Chime’s refusal to admit he was the one who was really upset, not Heart. It was taking everything he had to keep from bolting right out the window. If leaping out windows hadn’t been equivalent to killing himself, in his vertiginous condition, he would have.

“You still haven’t eaten. Is there anything in particular you want?”

“I want to be alone,” snapped Moon. “I thought I made that clear.” 

Chime stiffened, then carefully relaxed his face. “You have to know she didn’t mean it. She would never do that to you; she was just so worried. We all are.”

Moon didn’t answer.

Chime fussed around the hearth for a while, but when Moon didn’t look up again, he finally left. After he was gone, the shuddering got worse. Moon curled closer to the hearth, waiting for it to pass. He felt cruel and foolish – and foolishly afraid. How had he managed to make the morning go so badly, so quickly? 

Chime had left tea steeping for him, but it didn’t seem right to drink it.

#

Toward midday, a few of the Arbora brought him a not incosiderable amount of meat. After he ate he felt a little better. Moon decided he would walk; flying still seemed like a bad idea.

Unfortunately, the consort’s level was fairly limited. Moon counted the paces around the sitting area, then between each individual bower. Finally, largely out of curiosity, he unbarred the door of the aerial entrance to the consorts’ level and pushed it. It opened easily. He was a little surprised to find that they hadn’t found a way to lock him in. 

Ember was crouching on a limb outside. With a quizzical nod at Moon, he flew in.

“Chime said you wanted to be alone. Do you still want to be, or should I get him for you? Or Jade?”

“Were you guarding the door?”

“No,” Ember said matter-of-factly, shifting to groundling as he spoke, “but Balm is. She’s two branches down.”

It was difficult to get truly annoyed at Ember, but Moon made a concerted effort.

“It would make me so happy,” Ember tried again, “if I could get Jade for you. I know she wants to apologize.”

“Did she tell you she wants to apologize?”

Ember dropped his eyes, showing his thick, luxurious lashes. 

It was all the answer Moon needed. 

“Yes,” he said.

Ember’s boyish face brightened. “Yes, I can get her?”

“No. Yes, I do still want to be alone.”

Ember sighed, managing to make it sound delicate and gracious.

“Can I stay, then? I do live here.”

“Do what you want.”

Ember looked at him for a while, then picked up the empty tray, and left.

As the afternoon waned, Moon watched the window-light grow long across the floor of the bower. He paced, sat, curled into various positions in turn; it was nearly impossible to find a comfortable one with his wings. He’d always known that Aeriat forms took more energy to maintain than groundling ones. Now that drain was beginning to wear on him, and he wanted sleep badly. But every time he lay down, his heart would begin to pound, his thoughts to nag at him, and it was no good. He was beginning to feel itchy, too. Whenever he didn’t pay attention, he would find himself idly scratching the scales of his head. If he had been in his groundling form and had hair to pull on, he probably would have been tearing it out by fistfuls.

Around dusk, he was curled up in his bower. There was a rustling sound at the door, and then Frost said, in a high, imperious tone, “I’ll knock if you won’t. He won’t avoid me.”

An older male voice, probably Dash, hushed her.

Moon didn’t particularly want to explain his current state to the fledglings, so he crept up to the door and leaned against it. Soon after, one of them tried it, gently, then rapped on it when it wouldn’t open. Finally, after some hushed but completely audible urging, Bitter’s voice called, “Moon? Moon, are you in there? Did you really fall out of the bed?”

He closed his eyes and didn’t answer.

#

At nightfall, Thistle came up with some simple food and tended his wound, sending apologies from Heart, who was still preparing the new simple.

“This is healing well,” he said. “Only one more day, Moon. Do you want Chime again tonight?”

His breath came out in a hiss. 

Thistle fussed around the wound, clearly delaying his departure. “Someone has to be here with you. I can see you’ve already been scratching; going without sleep can cause reckless behavior, even mild hallucinations, like voices.”

“I can handle it. I’ve stayed awake longer.”

“Not while trapped in your Aeriat form, not while recovering from a significant head injury.”

Moon hunched his wings, then said, “Jade.”

Thistle paused in surprise. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Moon was pretty sure it wasn’t, but if he was going to hallucinate, someone should be there who was strong enough to hold him down. Or chain him down, if need be.

“Moon, it’s not going to be that bad,” said Thistle, with pity, and Moon realized he had spoken aloud.

“Jade,” he repeated.

A little while later Jade came in, moving uncharacteristically quietly in her Arbora form. Moon didn’t want to meet her eye, so he looked away. When he peeked up again, she was fussing with the unusued tea things, not looking at him, either. Then she took a breath and composed herself.

“Moon, I wouldn’t – ”

“I know,” he said quickly. 

He did know, but it was more that he didn’t want to hear her say the words again.

Then she was taking him into her arms, and she must have shifted, because she was folding soft, warm wings around him. The trembling that he didn’t know had begun again began to subside.

“Heart’s nearly finished the new simple. And Ember argued with Chime – Chime said you wanted to be left alone, Ember said no matter what I’d said you needed me. Chime won the fight. Maybe Ember had it right, though.”

“Chime was right,” Moon said. “I did want to be alone, until I didn’t.”

“So I went looking for Stone instead,” Jade continued. “I thought maybe if he were here, you could relax enough to sleep. It was no good, though. He could be leagues away, and I have no idea what direction, even.”

Moon hmph’d, and Jade ran her fingers over his scratched scales.

“It was that thunderclap, wasn’t it? Why you fell?”

Moon flattened his spines.

“Moon, anybody could have slipped with a noise like that. It’s a natural startle response.”

“But ‘anybody’ didn’t. I did.”

“So?” 

He had stiffened under her hands, but he didn’t want to pull away from her. The warmth felt too good. After a while, he felt the muscles start to relax again, and it felt like maybe he could talk.

“You can’t make everything better,” he said. “You, and Chime, and Heart and the rest of the mentors. I’m always going to be like this. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

The arms around him tightened.

“Well, we can fix a head wound, at least,” she said, a little drily. “Will you let us do that?”

“If you must.”

“Grouch.” She reached back for the pile of furs, pulling them around herself and Moon. “I need to sleep. Rest with me?”

Thistle must have refreshed the warming stones without him noticing; there was a pleasant, glowy heat coming out of the basin. The scales of Jade’s arm shone. He curled himself deeper against her belly. 

“Jade.”

“Hm?”

“I can’t stop scratching. I need something else to do with my hands.”

In answer, warm fingers intertwined with his.

“Jade.”

“Hm?”

“I’m really tired.”

“Hush. Let’s try this.”

She nestled closer to him, until he felt the warm bulge of her pregnancy against the small of his back.

#

It got worse in the night.

When Thistle had said hallucinations, he had expected bad memories, waking dreams, terrifying visions of escaping the Fell. Instead, as Jade snored away peacably behind him, he just kept getting itchier. It was like he could feel the clothes he’d been wearing when he shifted out of groundling, trying to escape out from under his scales. Moon tried to focus on Jade’s warm fingers entwined with his own, to breathe deeply, not to itch. But then he felt insects crawling on his neck and side, snatched his hand away to slap at them – but there was nothing there.

Jade murmured and turned away.

Moon breathed deeply. Then something crawled up his leg.

It was nothing, again, but he jumped up anyway, snarling silently. 

There was a heated pool on the consorts’ level – perhaps that would ease the insect sensation. Heart and the rest of them would be angry if he got the wound too wet, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to keep his head above water!

Moon eased himself into the pool. It was only a little warm, but the sensation of the water did seem to compete with the feeling that there were bugs crawling on him. It buoyed his wings, too; for once his shoulders almost felt comfortable. The light was very low, and as it glinted off the ripples in the water, off his scales, Moon almost felt like he couldn’t tell where the water ended and he began. He thought he heard a voice calling to him…

Then all at once he was sputtering, coughing, his chest burning.

“That,” said Chime, “was incredibly stupid. I’m starting to believe you really do have a death wish.”

Moon gasped and wheezed air into his lungs. He was lying half in, half out of the pool, his head turned sideways. Evidently, it was Jade who had dragged him out. She was supporting his head against her thigh, with her arms linked around and under his arms. His wings were all askew and dripping.

“I’m not at my best,” Moon managed.

Jade, amazingly, didn’t look angry. She peered over him, her eyes wide. “I didn’t even feel you going,” she said. “Chime was waiting outside, and he heard you get up. You were barely in there for two breaths before you slipped under the water. When Heart gets here, I’m going to have her put you in a healing sleep, like she should have from the start.” 

“No,” said Heart.

Everyone turned. Heart was leaning against the wall, the copper tones of her skin under-lit by the soft light she carried. She had a finger pressed against her lip, thoughtful.

“Chime, he went right down when he got into the pool?”

“Like a big mudslide,” he said.

“Moon, do you think you fell asleep?”

He pushed himself up. Had it been a hallucination, or a dream? “I think so,” he said.

Heart stepped forward, looking more confident. “Chime, please fetch another couple of heating stones for the pool, and two slats from the artisans. I want to try something. Don’t wake anybody! Jade, can you help Moon back into the pool?”

“I can do it myself,” he groused. But he slid in with Jade, and didn’t pull away from her hands.

Chime came back with the wooden boards – one had a little bit of carving begun on it, Moon couldn’t tell what yet – and Heart and Chime fussed around until they were arranged in an x over the pool, tightly collaring Moon’s head, making it impossible for him to go under again.

“Does this look as stupid as I think it does?” he asked.

“It’s not stupid if it works,” said Heart, sounding pleased. “This is still not completely safe, but if this is the way you’re able to sleep, it’s not too much trouble to watch over you. We’ll take it in pairs, to make sure nobody nods off except for you, Moon.”

“That’s going to be difficult with everybody staring at me.”

“Hm,” said Chime. He slid into the pool on the other side of Moon, bringing the extra stones in with him, and the temperature of the water began to be extremely comfortable. Chime leaned against him. Had he had been watching outside the door all day? Even after the way Moon had behaved?

“Make this work, Moon, and I’ll have a special note to add to our records,” Heart said. “‘A solution to the problem of particularly high-strung consorts.’”

“Absolutely not,” said Moon.

But his words came slow and slurred, and after he had spoken them, no answer came – only a sense of blissful warmth.

# 

When Moon woke, it was late morning, and he was in his groundling form. Someone had bundled him in furs and laid him down somewhere else, far away from the pool. His head throbbed, but only with a familiar kind of busted-head throbbing, the kind he would get after taking a particularly bad punch. He raised a hand to his head, and felt the long scab running from forehead halfway back his skull. Then he looked at his fingers. They were still wrinkled from the long soak. And he was extremely thirsty.

He rose and went out onto the balcony overlooking the main greeting hall, nearly tripping over Chime on the way. He was hunched over in a fur of his own, sound asleep. Moon didn’t wake him.

As he leaned out, Balm alit softly beside him and shifted to groundling, in deference to his own form. 

“He stayed up til dawn,” she said, glancing affectionately at Chime. “That was when Heart decided you had recovered enough to skip the dose, and let you shift back in your sleep. Only think, if you’d held out just a little longer, you could have avoided all of this trouble.”

Moon grimaced. He liked Balm enough to let her tease him about this.

“Oh, Moon, you aren’t – well, yes, you are a lot of trouble. But you’re worth it, all right? We’d prefer not to have you drowning in a stupor.”

“Thanks,” he hedged.

“By the way, Jade said next time feel free to shake the bed a little instead of falling out of it. I’m not completely sure what that means. Is it a sex thing?”

Moon thought that if Jade were the one who had to deal with an angry, rudely-awoken Raksuran queen after shaking the communal bed, she might have a little more understanding. Then again, Jade did have to regularly deal with a surly, troublemaking consort – so maybe she did.

“It means none of your business,” said Moon.

“Hm. Thought so,” said Balm. Then she nudged his shoulder. “Before he passed out, Chime said Heart cleared you for flying, too. Want to see what the hunters have caught?”

With a smile, she leapt from the balcony – and for just a moment, Moon felt a dizzying drop in his gut, a beat of panicked vertigo. But then she shifted in a blur of wings and claws, swooping down into the heart of the colony. Moon jumped after her, reached, and caught the air.


End file.
